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AirPlay Direct Gets The Music Out

Hats off to independent artists everywhere, these intrepid vocalists and musicians who sacrifice much to enrich our lives with great music.  The Indie Net News is on their side and always on the lookout for ways to make their lives a little easier.   We know that once an artist has managed to get a CD produced, and that in itself is a huge accomplishment considering all the roadblocks and expenses this entails, the next step is to get that music heard.  That means radio airplay – and this isn’t a roadblock; it’s climbing Mt. Everest in a blizzard!  Aside from the fact that it’s nearly impossible to get a terrestrial station that’s part of the “good old boy” network to even consider playing independent music – but that’s another story – you have to deliver the music to hundreds and hundreds of stations and you can’t just throw a demo disk in an envelope and hope for the best.   

You need a nice press kit – photos, press, bio, and a good looking demo disk to get the attention of DJ’s and program directors.  This takes a lot of work and costs a lot of money, but once you get all this material together you’re then faced with endless hours of gathering radio station addresses and then the biggest and baddest monster of all – POSTAGE!!   

While we can’t offer solutions to all the challenges faced by independent artists, The Indie Net News is happy to report we’ve found an answer to the nightmare of submissions to radio for airplay and doing away with the expense of creating professional-looking press kits. That answer is AirPlay Direct, a new, revolutionary, efficient and cost effective way to securely deliver your “broadcast-quality” music and electronic press kits to music industry professionals around the world.  This is an easy to use digital file transfer system has been developed to streamline radio/artist promotion activities for today's music industry. AirPlay Direct offers free services to replace the time and expense of putting together and sending out costly traditional artist packages and press kits via snail mail.

 Robert Weingartz, CEO of AirPlay Direct, spoke with The Indie Net News and told us he came up with the concept of AirPlay Direct as a result of his own frustration as he had an independent release in January of 2005 that was doing very well and receiving requests from radio stations, many of them Internet and international stations.  “It came to a point that it was too expensive to mail all the hard copies out,” said Weingartz.  As often happens, great ideas are born of necessity. 

 Of course, it’s one thing to have a dream.  Turning the dream into reality involved a lot of work and a great deal of commitment.  Mr. Weingartz stated, “I knew the idea was good because it met a real need” and he discovered after doing some research that “digital delivery wasn’t really new as it was being used by the major labels, but it wasn’t independent friendly or cost effective and was focused on major market commercial stations that don’t play independents.”  Weingartz said, “I thought about what a company focused on indie music and radio would look like and put a lot of thought into the technology that was needed and how to keep it simple.   The first step was to design and create a user-friendly platform.  Once the platform was developed, we then acquired content from indie artists and reached out to radio.”   

 Taking the idea of digital delivery of broadcast-quality music to radio a step further, Mr. Weingartz stated, “AirPlay Direct enhanced the platform to deliver digital press kits – DPK’s - by email to radio stations, booking agents, management companies, record labels, and even print media, thereby all but doing away with necessity of expensive hard copy press kits and the costs of mailing.”       

The DPK is a great feature offered to independent artists free of charge and has become a signature of AirPlay Direct. Weingartz explained further that, “AirPlay Direct is an artist advocacy and educational platform wrapped in digital services, and pointed out that “the DPK was developed at the request of its members.”   These innovative services developed by Robert Weingtartz “have made AirPlay Direct the Number 2 digital press kit company in the world and the only company, to our knowledge, offering free DPK’s as part of the package.”  The Indie Net News agrees with Mr. Weingartz who stated, “These attractive and professionally-presented DPK’s are a unique service offered by AirPlay Direct, and this inventive method of delivering broadcast-quality music is the direction music promotion is currently moving.”     

As to plans for the future, Mr. Weingartz said, “We’re in the process of raising capital to build a new platform with some new services and functions.  We have passed the 2,000 radio station member mark, an exciting milestone, and expect to reach the 10,000 artists and record labels mark by the end of February, which will be a big event for the company.  New staff has been added, including Roger Smith, Director of Advertising and Sponsorships and a new advisor, Michael Harnett, is going to help shape the company in a lot of ways.  With a strong background in the industry, he will have a senior level position within the company.”

 Apart from the delivery of music and DPK’s digitally, Weingartz informed us that “AirPlay Direct also sponsors artist contests each month, the goal being to get the winners the same kinds of promo packages as indie labels would offer.  Typically, prize packages are valued at $25,000 to $30,000 and include radio and PR campaigns, and perhaps even recording packages.  Manufacturers often contribute equipment and various products which are needed by any active indie artists.” 

The Indie New News is well-acquainted with the very impressive, state-of-the-art, yet user-friendly services offered by AirPlay Direct and can speak from firsthand knowledge in recommending AirPlay Direct to all independent artists who have that CD in their hands and now need to get their music into the hands of radio stations, record labels, agents – anywhere they need to send it.  We can’t even begin to calculate the numbers of dollars and hours you will save after visiting AirPlay Direct at www.airplaydirect.com, but we promise it will be well worth the trip.   

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